Suzio Points To Resto Arrest As Reason To Suspend Early-Release Program

A Republican state senator pressed his case Wednesday against a program that lets convicts earn credits toward a possible early release from prison, earning a rebuke from the Malloy administration, which accused him of playing politics and twisting the facts of one prominent case.

Sen. Len Suzio said Democratic Gov. Dannell P. Malloy should “suspend” the program, which Suzio said has allowed some 7,600 inmates to be let out early since its inception. He accused the administration of being involved in a “cover up” about problems with the credits system.

Resto

Suzio cited the case of Frankie Resto, a former inmate now charged with felony murder, as the “poster child” for the problem, because Resto had been allowed to earn 199 days of credit toward early release while serving prison time for a 2006 robbery conviction. Suzio argued that the credits allowed Resto to get out of prison earlier than under previous state law requiring that violent offenders serve at least 85 percent of their prison sentence before being eligible for parole.

But Michael Lawlor, the state’s under secretary for criminal justice policy and planning, said that Resto had actually served 91 percent of the original prison sentence he was given for a robbery conviction in 2006 and was on probation when he was arrested for murder.

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